For as long as we can remember, Corsair has been near the forefront of product innovation which has directly led to them being one of the front runners in the SSD market. They recently released their Force series SSDs which cater to the enthusiast crowd by sporting the new SandForce SF-1200 controller and tons of performance to boot. In this review we take a look at the 100GB version of the Force series and see if it has the capability to beat some of the best drives around.

One point on these review with which I find I have to quibble: the value calculations. They invariably seem to use the price points established during the initial review of a product, which is then re-used for comparison purposes in subsequent reviews even as the actual price drops.

Having just looked at an Intel X-25M it caught my attention in particular: it's listed as having a $4.60/GB value, which for the 80GB works out to a purchase price of $338. Yet the drive is readily available for $234, which drops the per-GB price to $2.96.

I know electronic prices change rapidly, but it's hard to see the value, so to speak, in a comparison chart when portions of it are months out of date.

I'd like to nitpick a bit, too, if I may. ;) The value for this drive in the tests, I'm not sure how the figure was acquired. I checked shopbot and this drive is EXPENSIVE right now and not readily available yet. Also, how come the Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB wasn't compared with these drives? :) I think it might make the comparsions more interesting if it was included and the SSDNow excluded instead, for e.g., since the Kingston was already tested and the stats can be found there? I just thought the new controller in the drive might generate interest so that comparing to the Crucial would be more intriguing than comparing to so many older drives.

I also believe that the prices aren't or don't drop as quickly or as often as suggested. It's my belief that manufacturers keep low stock of these things and don't want the prices low. Until, there's a real explosion of SSDs, the prices will stay high and at a real bad price/GB, too. At first look, you might say there's a lot of drives out there but with legacy drives at decent $/GB, there's not much of an incentive to switch unless performance and low power is a priority. I think SSDs are perfect companions for laptops, though. The light weight and speed are easily the best upgrade for them. Simple plug and play (remove old one and switch). But, there are old SSDs still on the market which haven't had much of a price drop at all. Some like the Patriot Torx doesn't seem like it dropped in price by even a dollar and is more expensive than most. They've all been in the $400 range for months.

I'd like to nitpick a bit, too, if I may. ;) The value for this drive in the tests, I'm not sure how the figure was acquired. I checked shopbot and this drive is EXPENSIVE right now and not readily available yet. Also, how come the Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB wasn't compared with these drives? :) I think it might make the comparsions more interesting if it was included and the SSDNow excluded instead, for e.g., since the Kingston was already tested and the stats can be found there? I just thought the new controller in the drive might generate interest so that comparing to the Crucial would be more intriguing than comparing to so many older drives.

I also believe that the prices aren't or don't drop as quickly or as often as suggested. It's my belief that manufacturers keep low stock of these things and don't want the prices low. Until, there's a real explosion of SSDs, the prices will stay high and at a real bad price/GB, too. At first look, you might say there's a lot of drives out there but with legacy drives at decent $/GB, there's not much of an incentive to switch unless performance and low power is a priority. I think SSDs are perfect companions for laptops, though. The light weight and speed are easily the best upgrade for them. Simple plug and play (remove old one and switch). But, there are old SSDs still on the market which haven't had much of a price drop at all. Some like the Patriot Torx doesn't seem like it dropped in price by even a dollar and is more expensive than most. They've all been in the $400 range for months.

The reason older kit is not dropping in price is that they are no longer made. I know for the longest while you could get a 5 series NVIDIA card from ncix.....for more then the 8 series equivalent went for. Same idea with older SSDs. No demand, no more stock = no reason to drop the price and create a demand for it.

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"If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the universe." -JR

“if your opponent has a conscience, then follow Gandhi. But if you enemy has no conscience, like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer.” - Dr. MLK jr

The reason older kit is not dropping in price is that they are no longer made. I know for the longest while you could get a 5 series NVIDIA card from ncix.....for more then the 8 series equivalent went for. Same idea with older SSDs. No demand, no more stock = no reason to drop the price and create a demand for it.

That's true. But, do they expect it'll sell anyway? OR that no one will compare other drives or prices? I see this at local computer stores. Older video cards that are way overpriced and if you know what it is, you just laugh. Do they expect some unsuspecting customer with money to eventually empty stock of these parts? How long can they let parts just sit there? I always wondered about that...

They dont really epect to sell them, but until it costs more (in room it takes up in their warehouse) to keep and advertise it vs. dropping it.....they keep it "in stock" and advertise it on their site or in their store. The reason for this is simple: some people dont know the difference and will buy older kit AND others need it for compatibility reasons. So every once in a blue moon old stock DOES sell. ;)

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"If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the universe." -JR

“if your opponent has a conscience, then follow Gandhi. But if you enemy has no conscience, like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer.” - Dr. MLK jr

Can you respond to the comments about the value chart? I'm interested in the answer... In particular, it seems that you don't give the Intel drives much love by doing this. Not only with the value, but also because the new firmware improves performance and the data in all of the tables is from an ancient firmware. I think the G2 is worth another look, with the new firmware...